The Quest

I will not lose you also.' Meren held him firmly, while they watched the death struggles in the pool diminish until the surface was still once; more.

'Demeter is gone,' Meren said quietly, and lowered Taita to his feet.

He went to catch the grey mare and brought her to him. As he helped Taita to mount, he said softly, 'We must go, Magus. There is nothing more for us here. You must tend your injury. No doubt the toad's fangs are poisonous, and the mud is so foul that it will contaminate your flesh.'

However, Taita lingered a little longer, looking for some last sign from his ally, seeking some final contact from the ether, but there was none.

When Meren leant from the back of his own mount, took hold of the mare's reins and led her away, Taita made no further protest. His leg was paining him, and he felt shocked and bereft. The old savant had gone and Taita realized how much he had come to rely on him. Now he confronted the witch alone, and the prospect filled him with dismay.

Once they were safely returned to their quarters in the palace at Thebes, Ramram sent slave girls with urns of hot water and bottles of perfumed unguents to bathe Taita and wash away the mud. When he was thoroughly cleansed two royal physicians arrived, followed by a train of assistants bearing chests filled with medicine and magical amulets. On Taita's instruction Meren met them at the door and sent them away: 'As the most skilled and learned surgeon in all of Egypt, the magus is attending to his own injury. He presents his compliments and thanks for your concern.'

Taita washed his wound with a distillate of wine. Then he numbed his leg with a self-induced trance, while Meren cauterized the deep gash with a bronze spoon heated in the flame of an oil lamp. It was one of the few medical skills that Taita had been able to teach him. When he had finished, Taita roused himself and, using long hairs from Windsmoke's tail as thread, stitched together the lips of his wound. He dressed them with ointments of his own concoction and bound them with linen bandages. By the time he had finished he was exhausted by pain and filled with sorrow at the loss of Demeter. He sank on to his mattress and closed his eyes.

He opened them when he heard a commotion at the doorway, and a familiar, authoritative voice bellowed, 'Taita, where are you? Cannot I trust you out of my sight, but that you commit some rash folly? Shame on you! You are no longer a child.' At that the Divine God on Earth,

Pharaoh Nefer Seti, burst into the sickroom. His suite of lords and attendants crowded in after him.

Taita felt his spirits rise and the well of his strength begin to refill. He was not entirely alone. He smiled at Nefer Seti, and struggled up on an elbow.

'Taita, are you not ashamed of yourself? I expected to find you breathing your last. Instead you are lying at your ease, with a foolish grin on your face.'

'Majesty, it is a smile of welcome, for I am truly delighted to see you.'

Nefer Seti pushed him back gently on to the pillows, then turned to his retinue. 'My lords, you may leave me here with the magus, who is my old friend and tutor. I shall summon you when I need you.' They backed out of the chamber and Pharaoh bent to hug Taita. 'By the sweet milk from the breast of Isis, I am glad to see you safe, though I hear that your companion magus was lost. I want to hear all about it, but first let me greet Meren Cambyses.' He turned to Meren, who stood guard at the door. Meren went down on one knee before him, but Pharaoh lifted him to his feet. 'Do not abase yourself to me, companion of the Red Road.'

Nefer Seti seized him in a hearty embrace. As young men they had embarked together on the ultimate test of warriorhood, the Red Road, a trial of skill in handling chariot, sword and bow. The two had been matched as a team against proven and tried veterans, who were free to employ any means, even killing, to prevent them reaching the end of the road. Together they had won through. Companions of the Red Road were brothers of the warrior blood, united for life. Until her death Meren had been betrothed to Nefer Seti's sister, the Princess Merykara, so he and Pharaoh had nearly become brothers-in-law. This reinforced the bond between them. Meren might have held high office in Thebes, but he had chosen instead to enrol himself as an apprentice to Taita.

'Has Taita been able to school you in the Mysteries? Have you become a magus as well as a mighty warrior?' Pharaoh demanded.

'Nay, Majesty. Despite the best efforts of Taita, I lacked the skills.

I have never woven the simplest of spells that succeeded. A few even rebounded on my own head.' Meren made a rueful face.

'A good warrior is better than an inept sorcerer any day, old friend.

Come, sit in conference with us, as was our wont in those long-ago days when we were fighting to free this very Egypt from the tyrant.'

As soon as they were seated at either side of Taita's sleeping mat, Nefer Seti became serious. 'Now, tell me of your encounter with the toads.'

Between them Taita and Meren described the death of Demeter.

When they ended Nefer Seti was silent. Then he growled, 'Those animals grow bolder and more voracious every day. I am certain that it is they who have made impure and sullied what remains of the water in the river pools. I have tried every means I can think of to be rid of them, but for every one we slay two more spring up to take its place.'

'Majesty.' Taita paused for a moment before he went on. 'You must seek out the witch whose creatures they are, and destroy her. The toads and all the other plagues she heaps upon you and your kingdom will disappear with her, for she is their mistress. Then the Nile will flow again, and prosperity will return to this very Egypt.'

Nefer Seti stared at him in alarm. 'Must I infer that the plagues are not of nature?' he demanded. 'That they are created by the sorcery and witchcraft of one woman?'

'That is what I believe,' Taita assured him.

Nefer Seti sprang to his feet and strode up and down, lost in thought.

At last he stopped and stared hard at Taita. 'Who is this witch? Where is she? Can she be destroyed, or is she immortal?'

'I believe she is human, Pharaoh, but her powers are formidable. She protects herself well.'

'What is her name?'

'It is Eos.'

'The goddess of the dawn?' He had been well schooled by the priests in the hierarchy of the gods, for he was a god himself. 'Did you not tell me she was human?'

'She is a human being who has usurped the goddess's name to conceal her true identity.'

'If that is so then she must have an earthly abode. Where is it, Taita?'

'Demeter and I were seeking her out, but she became aware of our intentions. First she sent a giant python to attack him but Meren and I saved him, although he came close to death. Now she has succeeded with the toads where she failed with the serpent.'

'So you do not know where I can find the witch?' Nefer Seti persisted.

'We do not know for certain, but the occult indications suggest that she lives in a volcano.'

'A volcano? Is that possible, even for a witch?' Then he laughed. 'I learnt long ago never to doubt you, Taita. But tell me, which volcano?

There are many.'

'I believe that to find her we must travel to the headwater of the Nile,

beyond the mighty swamps that block the river above Qebui. Her lair is near a volcano beside a great lake. Somewhere at the very end of our earth.'

'I remember you told me when I was a boy how my grandmother, Queen Lostris, sent a legion south under Lord Aquer to find the source of the river. They disappeared into those dread swamps beyond Qebui and never came back. Has that expedition aught to do with Eos?'

'It has indeed, majesty,' Taita agreed. 'Did I not tell you that there was a lone survivor of the legionaries who returned to Qebui?'

'I do not remember that part of the tale.'

'At the time it seemed insignificant, but one man came back. He was raving and demented. The physicians thought he had been driven mad by the hardships he had endured. He died before I could speak to him.